vi21maobk9vp comments on I Stand by the Sequences - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Grognor 15 May 2012 10:21AM

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Comment author: vi21maobk9vp 17 May 2012 08:54:35AM *  1 point [-]

Agreeing with something so big (but coherent inside itself) wholesale is a normal reaction if you consume it over small time and it doesn't contain anything you feel is a red flag. It can persist for a long time, but it can easily be either an actual agreement or an agreement "with an object" without integrating and cross-linking the ideas into your bigger map.

Fortunately, it looks like "taboo" technique is quite effective on a deeper level, too. After avoiding using terms, notions, arguments from some body of knowledge in your thinking, you start to agree with it point-by-point, and not think of it as of indivisible whole. You also start to find common ideas and clear disagreements with the other sources when you revisit the tabooed object. Usually, you start to disagree with a few minor details at that point, unless experimental evidence is abundant and not many inferences are drawn.

Oh, and while my priors are such that I don't agree with much of the Sequences, Sequences are a nice body of work and explain many ideas and their implications extremely well.